Rated 3 / 5 stars2014-06-08 07:13:10

Rated 4.5 / 5 stars2014-06-07 17:18:02

Holy crap! A game for mobile devices with an original and unique premise! Quickly, check to see if it's raining brimstone and the seas have turned red with blood!

Seriously though, the fact that the enemies in the game are living plantlife might trick you into thinking that this is a Plants vs. Zombies ripoff, but it really isn't. You control a castle in the middle of the screen and you have to defend the castle by positioning your archers, wizards, and other defenses in sectors around the castle. You can also build walls, set up magic wards, and grow damaging thorn bushes to hold the enemies at bay. It's very simple at the same time as being very challenging, so this is truly a game worthy of the mobile platform distribution it aspires to.

The user interface is very intuitive (for a mobile game, that is; not so much for a flash game on PC) and designed so that it's not easy to push a button by accident. This carries on into the gameplay, which uses a simple click-and-drag mechanic to allow you to position your defenses, build walls, and press buttons to collect gold from farmland. I like how on the level select screen the little dagger appears to break your screen instead of piercing the wood. That was a nice touch.

The enemies are all very distinctive, each with a unique silhouette and design to allow you to quickly identify what enemy does what and how you should prioritize your attacks. For example, the game features ears of corn which spit fire at your defensive walls (just roll with it) and their shape and color make them easy to pick out amongst the crowd of enemies. This makes it easy both to strategiƶe and to think on your feet, which comes in handy in the hairier moments when the game starts spawning baddies like they're going out of style.

The game's map is a big circle divided up into eight sections where you can aim the archers and the wizard, and each section is split into three sectors where you can set up walls and defensive wards. This doesn't require too much effort to wrap your head around when you're playing, but it does offer plenty of strategies. This is a game that you could find yourself toying around with to find the play style that works best for you.

If I had to find a complaint, and I do because I'm a massive anti-mobile snob with obsessive compulsive disorder, I'd say that the view of the map isn't as good as it could be. Of course, this is largely because the game is being developed for mobile platforms with a standard screen size, but the field of play is circular and the screen is rectangular. As a result, you can see farther to the left and right than you can to the top and bottom. What this means is that you can often see enemies coming before they enter the range of your defenses on the left and right, but an enemy could be attacking your defensive walls on the top and bottom and you wouldn't even be able to see it. Even the large potato creatures disappear behind the screen. For this reason, I recommend that players concentrate defensive walls in the middle ring and use magic wards for the outer rings so that you can still see enemies marching forward.

All told, the game comes together very well and if I had a decent mobile device to play this on I would definitely consider paying for the full version. This demo ends on an amazing note that leaves me wondering what will happen next in the story. I'm not going to spoil it in the review, but I will say very nice hook, Hypnic. You even got a guy who **hates** mobile gaming eager to see what comes next.

For an effective game put together well that definitely deserves a purchase for the full version, 9 out of 10.

First of all, Thank you for your insightful review of our game!
We didn´t expect to get a review with this high level of detail as you just did.

We are very excited to read that you enjoyed the enemies, which we enjoyed so much creating!

The Game designer said exactly the same problem you are pointing out at the bottom of your review, a circular map with a rectangular screen. This caused us some problems while developing and in the end we sacrificed the field of view from the North and South Lanes when enemies spawn.

However we wanted to go ahead with this circular idea because we thought that was fresh and in fact many elements in the game are either organic or round.